Adams 12 board to examine reading list after complaints about "Bluest Eye" in AP English at Legacy High

The Adams 12 school board will review its policies for choosing classroom reading materials after parents complained about a controversial book taught in Advanced Placement English classes at Legacy High School.

At a board meeting Wednesday, members found that Superintendent Chris Gdowski acted appropriately when addressing parents' worries about Toni Morrison's 1970 novel "The Bluest Eye."

After parents expressed concerns about the novel's explicit scenes of rape and incest, Gdowski decided to make the book optional and required a parent to sign a permission slip before a teen can read the book in the AP English class.

Though the school board agreed Gdowski acted within the district's guidelines, the board also assured parents it would re-examine policies regarding reading materials.

Member Rico Figueroa said the school board failed parents and teachers by not putting a more scrutinizing eye on the way classroom materials were chosen based on content and maturity level. He wants to see "safer" materials used in the classroom.

"I think we as a board need to really reflect, need to look more seriously at the policies, because they are inadequate," he said.

The announcement drew relieved applause from some parents. Others, however, said the school board's attitude could set a dangerous precedent where any challenging reading material would be in danger of being eliminated from the curriculum without trusting students to have mature conversations about its content.

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Several board members said they trusted teachers to choose reading material based on district guidelines, but admitted they wouldn't want their own children reading the book in class. That gave them pause.

"If I were on a review committee, I would not vote for inclusion of this book," said board member Frederick Schaefer, who added he wants to see children focusing on "something more positive" in the classroom.

The board has not yet set a date for when it might reexamine district policies, but concerned parents said they were happy to hear the board's willingness to change reading material policies.

Yet many of the book's supporters said changes to the district's reading list code could lead to a slippery slope of censorship.

Tricia Scow, who taught the book in her AP English class at Legacy last school year, said she sees the book as a classic literary work that illustrates valuable examples of technique by a groundbreaking author.

Blocking it from classrooms would set a dangerous precedent that could unfairly eliminate other literary works that include challenging material, she said.

Bailey Cross, a Legacy student who read the book in Scow's class, started an online petition to keep the book in the classroom. She said she doesn't want her world views limited by the idea that controversial subjects are somehow inappropriate for classroom discussion.

"Banning and censoring this tells students that ... racism, incest, rape, abuse, are taboo subjects that should not be mentioned," she said. "It sends the message that (someone) experiencing these things should not reach out for help, because if it's too explicit to read, it's too explicit to talk about."

"The Bluest Eye" has been approved for high school reading lists in the district since 2002, but parents in 2010 formally challenged the teaching of the book in classrooms, because they said the book is "developmentally inappropriate" and potentially damaging for teens. They also argue the book does not conform to the district's decency standards.

Legacy principal Lee Peters said the book won't be used this semester, because the school did not meet the superintendent's new guidelines for teaching the book. Gdowski in the spring told Legacy teachers they could include the book in the curriculum if they taught two sections of AP English — one with "The Bluest Eye" and one with an alternative novel.

Peters said the school waited for the board's feedback, which did not give it enough time to create the two sections of the class.

Parent Melanie Seilbach said she felt uncomfortable with her teenage daughter reading the book in class. Seilbach did not sign the permission slip, and her daughter opted out and read a different book instead.

Seilbach said the "opt out" model singled out her daughter and did not give her the same learning experience as other kids, she said.

"Opting out, it's difficult ... it's really hard to walk out of a class like that," she said.

Doug Pfeiffer, whose daughter, Morgan, read the book last year, said he wanted "The Bluest Eye" to stay in classrooms. He encouraged Morgan to read the book and talk about it with him.

"The book really gave us a chance to have those difficult discussions together as a family," he said.

Morgan's classmate, Brianne Harvey, said students should be part of the conversation when the school board chooses future reading material.

"As students, we have to learn to advocate for ourselves, and that's what we're doing," she said.

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